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‘The Witness’ offers two 4K rendering options on the PlayStation 4 Pro

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We’ve known for some time that certain existing PlayStation 4 titles will receive patches that supply enhanced support for the PlayStation 4 Pro system. Now, Jonathan Blow has revealed that his game, The Witness, will in fact feature two separate modes to choose from while the game is being played on a 4K display.

The first option allows the game to run at 60 frames per second at a 1440p resolution that’s upscaled to 4K. The game world will be rendered with 2x MSAA enabled, while text and the user interface will be rendered at 4K, according to a report from Gamespot.

Meanwhile, the other option renders everything in the game at 4K with 2x MSAA enabled. The drawback to this mode is that the frame rate is limited to 30 frames per second — but the improved resolution might make the compromise worthwhile for many players.

“We added option B because a lot of people seem to want it, and it does look really good!” Blow wrote in a post detailing these advanced options that was published on the game’s website.

Blow previously announced that players using a 1080p display will be able to enjoy the game rendered at 1080p, running at 60 frames per second with 4x MSAA — a significant improvement over the game’s 900p resolution and limit of 2x MSAA that’s in effect when the game is played on a standard PlayStation 4 console.

Additionally, HDR is set to be supported on both the PlayStation 4 Pro and the standard PlayStation 4.

Information like this gives us some tangible insight into the performance improvements that the PlayStation 4 Pro will offer. Many consumers purchasing the hardware will be primarily interested in its capacity to run demanding PlayStation VR content, but enhanced performance on older games is an attractive selling point, also.

The PlayStation 4 Pro is scheduled to launch on November 10. The compatibility patch for The Witness is expected to be distributed before the end of November.

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Brad Jones
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